Women's Track and Field | 06/11/2021
ST. JOSEPH, Minn. – For distance runners, a fast pace right out of the gate can be difficult to maintain throughout the course of the race.
After bursting into the distance scene for the College of Saint Benedict track and field team in February,
Fiona Smith had no problem maintaining her record-setting pace for the Bennies over the course of her first season with the team.
She started her collegiate career by smashing CSB's indoor 3,000-meter record, and she wrapped up the year by earning All-American honors at the NCAA Outdoor Championships. Along the way, Smith set five school records, made Bennie history in a trio of events and won an individual MIAC title.
For her incredible season, Smith is the 2020-21 CSB Rookie of the Year, the department announced Friday. The 2020-21 Rookie of the Year was chosen from a pool of seven nominees who were selected from the department's 11 varsity sports teams.
Smith's school record – and win – in the 3K on Feb. 7 was just the beginning of what was a record-setting season from start to finish. A week later she took down the indoor 5K record – a record that had been in place since 2005 – and on Feb. 20 she tried her hand at the mile, where she ran the second-fastest time in program history.
The indoor season wrapped up in historic fashion for Smith, who earned an invited to the Wartburg Elite Meet in both the 3,000- and 5,000-meter runs. Competing against top competition from around the region and Division III, Smith won the 5K and lowered her school record, and then made history in the 3K by becoming the first runner in CSB history to break 10 minutes in the event. She finished the indoor season ranked third in Division III in the 3K, fourth in the 5K and seventh in the mile.
After starting the outdoor season by running the fifth-best 1,500 time in CSB history on March 27, Smith set the outdoor 5K record on Easter weekend, lowered her 1,500 time a week later and then made history once again in back-to-back weeks in mid-April. On April 17 she became the first runner in program history to break 10 minutes in the outdoor 3K, and a week later she became the first Bennie to break 17 minutes in the 5K when she won the Hamline Showcase in 16:53.29.
Smith earned a pair of All-MIAC honors after winning the conference 5K title – the second straight Bennie to win the event, following Morgan Pierce in 2019 – and taking third in the 1,500, but she saved the best for last.
Following the conference meet, Smith was had the eighth-best time in Division III in the 5K. When the official list of NCAA qualifiers came out, she was seeded seventh in the 19-woman field. But after the race finished on May 29, she finished fifth to earn All-American accolades – a first for the CSB track and field team since 2017, and the first All-American in the 5K in CSB history. She also improved her own record by eight seconds, finishing in 16:45.74.
Smith finished her first season with the Bennies with 13 individual wins, and she finished in the top five all 20 times she competed this season. She set five school records, and also owns the third-best time in school history in the 1,500.
